 In January 1998, Marburger became president of Brookhaven Science Associates, which subsequently won a bid to operate Brookhaven National Laboratory for the federal government, and he became the director of the lab.He took office after a highly publicized scandal in which tritium leaked from the lab's High Flux Beam Reactor, leading to calls by activists to shut down the lab.Rather than directly oppose the activists, Marburger created policies that improved the environmental management of the lab as well as community involvement and transparency.